Organizational Benefits

• Find innovative ways to build capacity and do more with existing resources
• Evaluate potential outcomes to crisis situations, and prepare for future events through modelling and simulation
• Diagnose and close execution gaps, ensuring new strategies effect the desired change
• Explore ways to execute results in the face of increasing compliance and regulatory requirements
• Achieve short-term goals while positioning your organization for long-term success
• Increase employee engagement and commitment through periods of immense change
• Foster and reinforce a strong culture of execution and success

Personal Benefits

• Compare your organization's ability to execute to your competitors by completing a comprehensive execution diagnostic of your organization
• Identify the unique behaviors of an execution leader and demonstrate your ability to effectively deliver your organization’s strategy
• Improve time management and productivity by identifying personal execution barriers whether working remotely or in traditional office settings
• Learn about the importance of candor and empathy in navigating difficult conversations
• Evaluate your personal assumptions about how organizations "get things done" and determine if they are holding you back
• Network with fellow leaders from across the country, sharing best practices from across industries and sectors

Program content

The program leverages the educational power of multiple teaching tools, including class discussions, exchange of ideas and perspectives with faculty and fellow participants. Hands-on experiential learning is provided through a goal-setting simulation, opportunity for one-on-one coaching, and application of leading-edge execution tools and techniques. Participants will also have the benefit of using a proprietary assessment tool that quantifies the Cost of Execution (COEx) or 'drag' on execution performance and compares it to other organizations in your industry.

Aligning Strategy and Execution: Changing the Mindset

• Establishing realistic targets that stretch the organization and promote growth
• Best practices (e.g, 4DX, Hoshin Kanri, Balanced Scorecard, Operating Plan) in alignment to prioritize objectives, tactics, and performance metrics on achieving the most important goals
• Modern budget and prioritization approaches that allocate resources to their most productive uses
• Establish a day-to-day rhythm for execution that increases momentum and keeps everyone aligned to deliver on the strategy.
• Exploring the potential risks and benefits of making mid-course corrections

Execution Leadership

• Expanding organizational involvement in the planning process to create alignment and commitment
• Socializing strategy so everyone in the organization understands their role, how to do it and why it’s important
• Explore cases where organizational leaders needed to make bold moves to ensure long-term survival
• Legitimizing execution performance as essential for strategic success
• Identify the behaviors that make an execution leader unique
• Best practices (e.g., Lean) that improve productivity and remove waste
• Improving ineffective business processes

Organizational Execution Levers

• Learn the different types of organizational execution levers (e.g., structure, agility, technology, leadership etc.) and their benefits in terms of executing the strategy
• Orchestrate balance between execution discipline and agility – how do you choose the right lane for execution?
• Identify your organization’s primary execution barriers and how to detect them
• Leveraging digital technology and analytics to improve collaboration, knowledge-sharing and productivity
• Improve your organization’s ability to lead and manage projects to deliver on goals and objectives
• A simulation that provides hand-on application to highlight the benefits and potential pitfalls of performance indicators

Creating an Effective Execution Culture and Environment

• Discuss the role of execution in sustaining long-term performance and improving resilience
• Complete a proprietary assessment (Cost of Execution COEx) to determine the degree to which execution barriers are creating a drag on progress and wearing down resources
• Legitimizing cultural barriers to execution such as silo mentality and organizational politics
• Modern evidence-based approaches to building organizational commitment and engagement
• Designing work spaces that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction

Session Leaders

Session leaders include senior professors from Smith School of Business and knowledgeable experts from industry. These outstanding teachers are constantly in touch with today's business world through real-world business experience, Board memberships and their own consulting practices.

Dr. Kathryn Brohman
Digital Business and Strategy Execution, Smith School of Business

A world in which technology enables businesses to prosper, employees to thrive, and a culture for driving results to flourish is the vision behind Kathryn Brohman’s thought leadership in sustainable execution.

An Associate professor at Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Kathryn has co-authored several books that focus on how today’s organizations can navigate business practices to drive short-term results without compromising long-term success. Her most recent book entitled SHIFT: A New Mindset for Sustainable Execution presents results from her work with over 750+ organizations that helped translate strategy into action. The book provides a pragmatic approach to identifying salient execution barriers, filling gaps to stabilize an execution backbone, and removing distractions to seamlessly adapt to change.

Since arriving at Queen’s University in 2003, Kathryn has pioneered programs in Strategy Execution and Digital Transformation across MBA and executive programs. She has worked with hundreds of organizations in North America to translate strategy into action. Kathryn has received multiple funding grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) as well as the Ontario Research Foundation and published her work in premier journals including MIS Quarterly, Decision Sciences, Harvard Business Review, MIS Quarterly Executive, and Communications of the ACM.

Barry Cross
Operations Strategy, Smith School of Business

Barry Cross is an expert and thought leader in innovation, execution and operations strategy. He joined Smith School of Business after nearly 20 years in the automotive and manufacturing sectors with Magna, Autosystems and DuPont, where he led many key strategic initiatives, including nearly 30 program launches in North America, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

Barry speaks and consults widely in the areas of Lean, Innovation, Strategy, Projects and Execution, enabling organizations to create sustainable value for their customers.  He is the bestselling author of three books, including Simple: Killing Complexity for a Lean and Agile Organization, and several Most Read articles.

Dr. Jay Handelman
Marketing, Smith School of Business

Jay Handelman is Associate Dean of Research, Director of the MSc and PhD programs, and Associate Professor of Marketing at Smith School of Business. He has also served as Director of the Centre for Responsible Leadership.  He has conducted extensive research into the ways in which marketers integrate emotional, cultural and social responsibility dimensions into their traditional marketing strategies, and the ways in which these strategies benefit the organization.  He is also an expert on consumer activism and boycotts. His research has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Retailing and the Journal of Business Research.

Dr. Paul Roman
Management Science , Smith School of Business

Paul Roman has been researching and lecturing in operations management with emphasis on reliability and maintainability and modeling and simulation for over 15 years.  His 20-year military career included duty with 4 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in Germany, Officer Commanding 2 (Electronic Warfare) Squadron and he retired as the Director of the Army Experimentation Centre.  He also served in the Tactical Command, Control and Communications System (TCCCS) project management office as both the Integrated Logistics Support Data and Facilities Officer and the project's first fielding officer.  Paul is a professional engineer with two degrees in Engineering Management from the Royal Military College (RMC) and a Ph.D. from Queen's (Mining Engineering) that he received in 1999.  

Upon leaving the military, Paul started a management consulting company with Syncrude Canada Ltd and the Department of National Defence as primary clients.  In this capacity, Paul has applied his skills in business process re-engineering to projects ranging from the development of a combat development process for the Canadian Army to enhancing the relationship between operations and maintenance at Syncrude.  He has been a facilitator at the Army's Campaign Planning sessions helping to convert the Army Strategy into aligned business plans at the directorate level.  He has also helped formulate strategy and policy regarding the application of modeling and simulation as the primary enabling technology necessary to help the Army meet its' strategic objectives. 

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